My Little Wastelander

Rusty Fortune

Day Two, date unknown - going to have to figure that out.

Met three of the six Elements of Harmony the other day, the earth pony Applejack seemed to like me, the other two, Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle don't trust me at all. I was actually a little surprised when I didn't wake up to the sound of gaurds breaking down Minuette's front door. Minuette told me she'd show me the elements Kindness and Generosity, then said something about how Laughter would find me herself. With any luck I can get on their good sides before the princess' student decides i'm unfit to stay in Ponyville.

Rust lay on his bed wondering whether he should include any more details, but as the smell of burnt food reached his nose he decided to get up and investigate. Minuette's pain-subduing spell had worn off last night when he went to sleep, and putting any weight on his front hooves hurt, but he tried his best to ignore the pain and begun walking down the stairs, following the acrid scent.

"Son a... Motherbucker!" He heard Minuette scream as he'd finally reached the floor. "How in Tartarus do I even manage to burn eggs?!"

Here we go...

"Minuette?"

"Yes, Rust?" She sighed.

"Do you uh... Need help?" He hazarded.

Minuette gave Rust a look that made him feel like he'd spontaneously combust, then look back at the "eggs". She dumped them into a trashcan and threw the pan into the kitchen sink.

"Nah, i'd rather just go out to get something to eat. Restaurant around the corner makes some decent food." She mumbled.

Getting ready to leave Minuette looked back at Rust, who was ungeared. "Rust, you forgetting something?"

It took him a few moments to realize what she meant, then a draft from the outside reminded him he wasn't wearing his clothes. "Not many ponies here seem to keen on wearing much clothing, i'd rather not stick out like a sore hoof."

Minuette simply nodded in approval and grabbed her small saddlebag before walking out the door, once again opened for her by Rust. The two unicorns stepping out into the deserted street, Minuette was the first to speak.

"I still can't believe how well mannered you are." Minuette giggled.

"I still can't believe I've been sent to the past," Rust joked. "And hey, just 'cause I was raised after the apocalypse doesn't mean I wouldn't have manners."

He thought for a moment and lowered his voice. "It's kind of what's expected of me I guess, back where I come from."

"Really?" Minuette gave him a funny look. "Is there a mare?"

"Wha-? Oh... No, well, yes. Kinda. Her name is Acid Rain, I brought her onto the 'law' crew after I met her out in the wastes. So get this..."

Rust, several Hundred Years Into the Future

It had been almost three years since the disappearance of Trump Card, and almost one year since Rust stopped a bandit coup and met Cobalt. Another long-distance caravan had gone out a few months back, promising to bring any news they heard of Trump. To Rust's disappointment, they again returned empty hooved. Metaphorically. They were actually carrying bags of coins and a cart filled with trinkets. Either way, the feelings of despair had returned. His mother and father had been killed when he was a small colt and he could hardly remember anything of them. The doc called it amnesia, something about psychological trauma. What he did remember was terrifying; he remembered the pained faces as they were beaten and executed. The marauders take no prisoners, if they had found him, he'd have received the same fate.

And that is when Trump Card found him. A small defenseless colt out in the middle of the cruel wasteland, alone, screaming for help. Trump had heard the screams from a set of ruins only a few yards away, and flew in Rust's direction immediately, even as all instinct told him he was putting himself in danger he couldn't find it in himself to leave a young one behind. When Trump had found him he was maybe four years old, covered in soot from the rubble that used to be his home, no memory of who he was, he had a name, but he couldn't place it. All he knew is that some mean ponies had burnt down their house and put his parents into sleep, a sleep they would never wake up from..

"Hey there kiddo, what's wrong?" Trump said softly, but a look on his face revealed he already feared the worst.

"My parents." The small colt sniffed. "Some bad ponies came... They... They..."

Trump made a split-second decision and gathered him in a hug, trying to provide some comfort to keep him from having a breakdown. "Okay, i'm going to get you to a place called Canterlot, it's safe there, what's your name?" He asked.

"It's... I don't remember..."

"Okay, it'll be alright, i'm going to get you to a safe place."

With that, they traveled to Canterlot, Trump had held residence in the corner bookstore, where Rust continued to reside after Trump's disappearance. A few times taking the colt out on scavenging trips, trying to calm the young unicorn's nerves, Trump found he had a keen eye for anything of value in ruins. The colt still hadn't remembered his name, and so Trump decided he'd call him Rusty Fortune. Soon after that Trump had become something of an older brother, or father, actually.  As Rust grew he learned everything Trump knew, both about scavenging and mechanics, which he soon earned his cutie mark in; two old cogwheels.

Eventually, Rust had grown into a young stallion, then suddenly; Trump vanished. No note, no signs, only the words he left with Rust: "I'm going on a important trip."

With that, the only father he could really remember was gone.

Rust shook his head, those memories would bring his downfall if he dwelled on them. By sundown he'd arrived at a abandoned section in Canterlot, one he'd promised himself he'd check for anything of value. He sat on his flank wondering which building he should check first. That is, until he heard the crack of a rifle accompanied by a bullet landing only meters away, sending him leaping behind a concrete wall.

"Eat lead you fuck!" The yell of a mare, obviously pissed. Too bad Rust had no idea why.

He heard the sound of a bullet being ejected from a bolt-action rifle, this meant he had time to run from cover to cover between shots, meaning he could flank the aggressor. Another bullet pinged nearby, and he ran from the concrete wall through a wagon-sized hole in the wall of an apartment building.

"Where are your buddies now huh?!" He heard another scream.

Rust pulled out his revolver, he was getting closer to the sniper, cutting through the building he arrived in the lobby, finding emptiness, aside from one shady looking wounded earth stallion sitting on the floor against the reception desk, he was suffering from two gunshot wounds and held a shotgun until Rust walked in.

"Damn." He mumbled, throwing his weapon to the side. "First we're ambushed by some crazy vigilante mare and now the Non-Sheriff just happens to walk in."

"What happened here?" Rust demanded.

"Acid Rain happened." The shady stallion deadpanned.

"Never heard of her."

Rust received a sigh in reply. "I don't have long, so might as well say it." The statement was proven true by a deathly sounding cough. "My crew screwed her over on some deal, after we left her for dead I guess she recovered, tracked us down, now this."

He looked like he was going to speak more, but bullets passing through your chest don't help your speech, blood erupted from the bandit as the bullet passed Rust only missing by mere inches. Causing Rust to, once again, dive for cover, he readied his revolver and peeked out from the reception desk. But there was nopony to be seen, rushing outside, he saw the mare the bandit had called Acid running down the abandoned street back towards the occupied ruins. In the darkness he saw a pair of wings that seemed to refuse to open. Immediately Rust gave chase.

Acid

Oh shit... I almost shot the sheriff, i'm fucked!

She was in panic, her wings refused to open, the state she was in; left for dead, dehydrated, starving. That didn't help. She was also covered in original bandages and probably had an infection. All she cared about up to this point was revenge, and she achieved that. Now what? Nowhere to go, and she was on the run.

"Acid!" The non-sheriff yelled. "Hold it!"

Her body was reaching it's limits, her only fuel for the past days had been bloodlust and maybe some dirty water. A voice in the back of her head told her that the journey was coming to an end. She rounded a corner and then ran down into a alleyway, if she had any tears, she would've been crying. This was how it ended - She had no reason to go on. The exhausted mare let herself fall beside a old dumpster and she began to pull out her sidearm.

Despite her pride, it was proving hard not to whimper when she held a gun to her head.

At the same time, from that point on no matter how much Acid wanted to end it, there was going to be a certain stallion that wouldn't let her. As the trigger was locked in place with magic, she felt her gun being levitated out of her hooves, Acid looked up to see a dark blue unicorn standing over her.

He tilted his head for a moment and spoke. "You've got issues."

"Bite me." Acid murmured, venom clear in her voice.

"Cannibalism isn't my thing." He said lightly. "Let's get you out of here. Safer back in town."

Before she could protest, she was surrounded by Rust's magic and lifted onto his back.

At this point, the words "Fuck it." rang through her head and she promptly passed out.

Minuette, past Equestria

"Wow." Minuette mumbled, they had sat down as they reached the restaurant. "She was going to kill herself, then?"

"Was." Rust smirked. "I had arrived just in time to stop her."

"What happened then?" It appears she'd been immersed by the story.

"Well," Rust started. "I got her back to the library and tried to more-or-less bring her back from the dead. She had suffered a gunshot that should have been fatal, she was starved, dehydrated, had an infection... She'd been through some bad stuff."

"Must've felt like you like you first woke up at the hospital." Minuette chuckled.

"Yeah, just no three story window to jump out." He replied.

At this time, their food had arrived. Minuette politely thanked the waiter. Afterwards, while Rust ravaged the food in front of him, Minuette consumed more slowly, slightly troubled by the haunting image her imagination had conjured of the shady looking stallion being killed, Rust may have been too descriptive.

Rust took notice to her discomfort. "Sorry, I probably shouldn't have mentioned the bandit when we're about to eat."

"Ah, don't worry about it." She waved him off. "So tell me about Acid."

Rust swallowed some hay fries and took a deep breath. "Uhm... Acid... Let's see."

"Acid Rain," He started. "She was the third and last addition to the crew, about me and Cobalt's age. Damp green coat,  she had some black stripes not sure why. A real fun mare to be around usually, the bane of my bar tab, too. Loves getting affection, which is pretty innocent until she goes out of her way to get drunk. The alcohol takes over and she starts to hit on me."

"Wow." Minuette chuckled. "Sounds like a real party type of pony."

"Kind of."

"So did you and her ever have a thing?" Minuette blurted, realizing too late how awkward it would sound.

Rust choked on another hay fry. Regaining control of his breathing he gave Minuette a funny look.

"Sorry," She mumbled. "Didn't realize how weird that would sound."

"Don't worry about it," He said softly. "I actually got asked that a lot so I should be used to it. Anyway, no, there was nothing there, we made jokes towards each other just to embarrass but it was just that."

"Oh." Minuette said.

Awkward, awkward, awkward.

Twilight Sparkle

"That's strange." Twilight said, scanning the area where Rust was found in magic.

"What's up, Twi?" Came her number one assistant, who was currently lazing about on the mare's back.

"I've seen this energy signature before, recently actually, it came from the Everfree Forest. These don't seem to be teleportation magic signatures though."

"Yeah, I think I remember, wasn't that right before you were turned into stone?" He chuckled.

"Spike!" She groaned. "That was not funny!"

She looked back at the site she was scanning. "Maybe I should scan that other area again."

"What about that one guy, Rust?" Spike started, hopping off Twilight's back.

She considered this for a moment, then nodded. "Spike, I need you to fetch him for me. If he asks why, tell him it's about his teleportation incident."

"And if he says he doesn't want to come?" Spike said, crossing his arms.

"If he wont come, i'll make him." Twilight... Growled, almost.

Spike's eyes widened, that was different. After a few seconds of wondering what could've brought on the disturbing response, he simply nodded and began running in the direction of Ponyville to seek out his quarry.